Pedal power

Nick Pastore works on a bike at the Freewheel’s Park Street location, where he is head mechanic. The collective hopes to open a second location in Judge Doyle Square.

Ald. David Ahrens has been a vocal critic of the Judge Doyle Square project, particularly calls for a subsidized hotel.

He notes that the numerous public comments collected by a consultant for the project’s master plan show very little enthusiasm for a hotel. But plenty of residents supported another idea for the project.

“Everyone was talking about bike facilities,” Ahrens recalls.

As Judge Doyle Square — which secured important city approvals in April — edges closer to reality, the city is on track to meet both goals. It is slated to include a 250-room hotel, apartments, retail and bicycle center. Beitler Real Estate Services is the developer on the project.

The bike center part of the project calls for 3,500 square feet of space for storage, restrooms, locker rooms and a service and repair area. The city is providing the space and some buildout but wants the service and repair operation to be run by an independent business.

Despite the apparent excitement about a bike center, the city initially had trouble finding anyone interested in running it. “We did release a request for proposals and didn’t get any responses and then shook the bush a little more reaching out to who we thought might be interested,” says David Trowbridge, a project manager with the city’s planning division.

The extra outreach has since led to proposals from two groups: Freewheel Community Bike Shop and Roger Charly, owner of Budget Bicycles, Machinery Row and Motorless Motion.

Trowbridge says Freewheel’s proposal is much more detailed, while Charly’s is barebones. Charly did not respond to requests for comment on this article.

Freewheel was founded as a nonprofit in 2003 by a group of local cyclists to create a space for sharing tools, skills, and knowledge, and also to promote cycling as a vehicle for social and environmental justice. The group, which is in the process of becoming a worker cooperative, has a workshop and store at 1804 South Park St.

Freewheel executive director Elijah McCloskey says in the past two years, the group has given away more than 1,000 bicycles, taught 700 people mechanical skills, diverted 30 tons of waste from landfills and sent hundreds of bikes to impoverished areas in Africa.

Freewheel also operates a for-profit bicycle retail business averaging around $120,000 in sales each year, which McCloskey says provides living wages for staff and funds more than 90 percent of the charitable and educational programs.

If awarded the contract at Judge Doyle Square, Freewheel would include a small retail area, but most of the space would be used for classes and workshops, including basic mechanics courses, safety education and classes geared specifically for women.

Freewheel volunteer coordinator Acadia, who goes by one name, is the instructor of “Fixing it Ourselves,” a bike maintenance class for women and “gender rebels.” The class is geared for people who are not confident doing basic mechanical work.

With a central location, Acadia says, the group will be able to help a lot more people. “A downtown location would just feel a lot more comfortable for people to walk into and to be able to find and get to along well lit streets.”

Freewheel would continue operating its southside location if it wins the Judge Doyle contract. “However, I think there is a lot of good that we could do with educating people who work, live and go to school downtown and our south side location just really isn’t accessible for them,” he says.

Trowbridge says while Freewheel submitted a detailed proposal, the one from Roger Charly was vague, with just an email outlining some basic ideas.

That doesn’t necessarily rule Charly out. Trowbridge says Charly obviously has run successful bicycle businesses and could provide an operation the city would like. However, one challenge with Charly’s proposal is that he would not pay rent or utilities for at least two years.

Freewheel proposes paying for utilities and also rent based on a percentage of bike sale revenue.

“Freewheel gave us an indication that they have a proven track record of service and sales. They have a for-profit model that seems to be working and people take their classes,” Trowbridge says. “They came across as feeling their numbers were conservative and confident they could make the numbers work to keep the facility open.”

Finding a business that is committed to the space is what Trowbridge says is important to the city.

“We definitely want something that is sustainable over time,” Trowbridge says. “We don’t want someone that’s just in there a couple years and then pulls out the stakes and then we’re stuck with a space.”

Trowbridge says city staff will be making a recommendation to the Common Council in a few weeks and from there it may be referred for review by committees. The bicycle resource center will likely open in early 2019.